1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) device and, in particular, to a backlight assembly having an improved light guide plate and a manufacturing method therefore.
2. Description of the Related Art
An LCD device has a structure in which liquid crystal cells are arranged between two transparent substrates in the form of a matrix, and a backlight assembly for providing light to the LCD panel.
A conventional backlight assembly includes a plurality of lamps, lamp housing for protecting the lamps, a light guide plate for guiding the light emitted from the lamps to the LCD panel, a reflection sheet arranged behind the light guide plate, and a plurality of optical sheets stacked on the light guide plate. Typically, the thickness of the backlight assembly occupies 50% to 95% of the total thickness of the LCD device of which the thickness of the light guide plate occupies 50% to 80%. Accordingly, the larger the thickness of the light guide plate becomes, the more difficult it is to manufacture a thin LCD device. Moreover, the dot and prism patterns for improving light efficiency formed on the rear surface of the light guide plate use a printing process that requires considerable manufacturing time, which results in a decrease in productivity.